Interview: 'Engaging, Gripping, Thrilling, and Brilliant' Jaime Winstone, Clifford Samuel, Sophia Bush, Ricky Champ on 2:22 - A GHOST STORY

The unlikely supernatural hit, 2:22 A Ghost Story, is now on a record-breaking fifth West End transfer, after hit seasons at the Gielgud, Noel Coward, Criterion and Lyric Theatres. It is now running at the Apollo Theatre with yet another cast iteration.

BroadwayWorld UK had the chance to speak with the latest stars of the ghostly tale - Jaime Winstone (Jenny), Clifford Samuel (Sam), Sophia Bush (Lauren), and Ricky Champ (Ben) - about the show and what it has been like to be a part of the spooky story, including their own beliefs on ghosts and the supernatural!

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What made you want to be a part of 2:22?

Clifford: The writing!

Jaime: The writing! was keen to work with Matthew Dunster (the director), who is just phenomenal with his actors. And then I really wanted to work with the rest of the cast, but ultimately, I love the part - I love Jenny. And I loved the fact that she was struggling with facing and finding who the old her is and dealing with questionable faith. I could see myself. Usually, when you read a script, you see yourself playing it, and you go, “Right, that's for me.” And ultimately, I wanted to do something at the Apollo! And something scary, you know?... I see myself as a bit of a “scream queen,” so I was really into it! 

Clifford: And I've never seen the play, and I just thought it was brilliant. Friends, lots of family have all seen it and they kept saying it's good. I've worked with Matthew before, but it's been a long time now. I trust him. When someone at his level says, “Come in and do this,” it's hard to say no unless there's a big clash with something you're doing! But for him to then call me out and say, “You want this?” It was already a yes, but let me just work out logistics! I trust him because he loves actors, and it sounds weird to say he loves actors - some don't. But when you have someone who loves actors, they look after you, and the character, and the story, and he loves the play, so you know you're in safe hands. And the writing’s just really good! I'd heard it was good, but when you read it yourself, you're like, “Oh, it's actually a page-turner!”

Jaime: There's a lot going on. 

Clifford: There’s a lot going on! And then the production, when it's layered with sound, which is a big part of the show, and lighting, it's thrilling to be in it as well, and watching the audience.

Jaime: It’s an exciting piece and it's basically interactive for the audience. It's not, but it feels like you're inviting all these people to your dinner party and you’ve got to host them. And it feels like -

Clifford: One big dinner party! [Laughs]

Jaime: One big dinner party - they're all on the journey. They're all on a journey, each of these characters, which are in an ordinary situation, faced with extraordinary circumstances. So it's fun, and it's scary, and it's exciting. And that is what theatre should be. 

Clifford: Yeah, with raising up interesting topics with four main characters that you as an audience will identify with. Every single one, whether it’s someone you like, you don't like, but you know them. You know these people, and that's why it makes you really close to them. You feel like you’re in the house!

Jaime: It’s been so successful as well. I think it's played in so many countries that you can take this blank canvas of a wonderful script and place it anywhere - these social differences appear in every culture. It just appeals to the audience because you can relate but then you're like, “Wow, that makes me think - Do I believe in that? Do I have faith in that? Is that science? Is it magic?” 

It becomes a lot more than just a ghost story.

Jaime: It really does!

Clifford: Yeah, it does! I said to Matthew on the phone, “You realise this is the first black Sam?” “Yes, I do.” “Okay, I'm just addressing it.” [Laughs] And that will change the dynamics, that will hopefully lift out new things in the script, which it has!

Jaime: It really has.

Clifford: We'd never rehearsed it to know that was going to be there until you meet an audience and it becomes apparent, you know, what I look like, and an interracial relationship - and you see that! It's so current; it's a new young couple, with a new baby, in a house, suddenly shoved into being called middle-class, and they're working it out. And you see that in Britain, especially in London, professionals who are in a mixed couple, and the language of that. It's believable because you know these people and it's nice to just see an evening of their life in [Laughs] An extraordinary way! In an extraordinary way.

A bit more than just a casual dinner party!

Clifford: Yeah, we started off casual . . . 

Jaime: We tried to, anyway!

Clifford: Well, Sam tries to really casual the whole thing. It's not happening.

Jaime: No, it’s not. [Laughs]

Sophia: I love theatre! And the blessing of being on long-running TV shows [Sophia starred in One Tree Hill and Chicago P.D] is that you have a job and you get to explore a character arc for years. The flip side is that you can’t go and do these other jobs that you're really excited by, or inspired by, or curious about. And knowing that, I really wanted to prioritise theatre.

When Matthew Dunster said, “Hey, we want you to come and do this play,” I had things going on. It's been a big year in my personal life. I was unavailable when they first asked me to come, and when it came back around, everything felt very kismet - It felt like all the stars had aligned. I sound like Clifford in the play now! But it really felt a bit magic. And having read the script, I was so excited about it, because it's truly one of the best things I've read in years. Danny has written such a beautiful play - it's layered, and it's sharp and it's not too verbose, and there's nothing undeveloped, it's really dynamic. And so I said yes!

Ricky: And that’s an incredible achievement, by the way, just to jump in on Sophia, when she says not overly verbose. There's an achievement to create something like that, with four people on stage, speaking for two hours. It doesn't feel like you're being drowned out in language. But during the course of this play, you find it so layered, and it is so rich. And that’s also what attracted me to the play, too.

Had you seen the show before being a part of it?

Ricky: Yeah, saw my friend Jake [Wood] play Ben in the very first run, couple of years ago now. 

Sophia: No. And interestingly, there was a short run that happened in Los Angeles, and my husband and I are season ticket holders at the Ahmanson, supporting the arts! And I actually wound up really sick when we had tickets to go and see it. Constance Wu was in the play, and I really was so excited about it! When I tell you I could not get out of bed,  I was just ill. And Grant said, “Well, I don't want to waste it. Let me see if somebody can come.” It was last minute, none of our friends were free, so he just wound up going by himself! So it's very interesting because he said, “You have to do this play.” And much like Jake saying it to you, you'd make up your mind - you'd said, “I'm gonna go do this.” But having someone who you love and trust say to you, “This is definitely something you're going to love . . .” No brainer. So interesting that my husband had seen it and I still have not!

Jaime: Yes, I'd seen it at the Noel Coward, and it was great. It was really great, really strong. Sadly, I did have to remove that from my memory when I stepped on, when Matthew offered me the part, because obviously, as an actor, you really want to do something different. And I also knew that I could bring something different to the Jennys. A lovely singer had done it beforehand, Cheryl, and utmost respect for any actor who'd played this part before, and any of the parts, because it's a really tough job. 

Clifford: Yeah.

Jaime: It's not easy, the amount of dialogue and all that, but as me as an actor, I'm emotionally pulsed, and Jenny on page was just like, “Oh my god, this is just so juicy!” And I think you get that as an actor, when you've been in the industry for so long, and you go, “Wow, I can really go there on that, and I can really make that softer, and I can really also open up to the audience.” Having an experience like that can push my Jenny quite forward, and I'm grateful for that. And grateful for the part because it's so exciting!

Clifford: All the parts, but it's so nice to see actors not bored! And in terms of the writing, you're constantly being challenged by the writing. For Sam, you have to think quick - he thinks very quickly. 

Jaime: He’s a professor!

Clifford: He’s a professor - he has a brilliant mind! So things come easy to him, and it does to me, but when you are actually talking, when you go into quantum physics to explain something, I don't think a lot of people will know that day in day out with that. So I have the challenge to make that my language and make it really trip off the tongue like my everyday language. So that was a challenge, but the writing was so fluid, the music of it - You cannot help but rise up to it. You can't let that text come to you, otherwise, you'll be in a lot of trouble! So it's been the best thing for any performer. You just want a good role that you can get your teeth into and it's just a beast of a play. From the outside, it just looks like a really lovely dinner party, but there's a lot of mechanics behind it, a lot of pedaling under to make it look nice, which is good, which is what we want to do, rather than seeing the hard work.

Do you believe in ghosts? 

Jaime: I certainly believe! I have very strong faith - I’m a very spiritual person. I've definitely had experiences where it's it's been surreal, but I don't know where I lie with that. I'm open to it. I am the Mulder to my Scully. [Laughs]

Clifford: Wowzers! [Laughs] I’m spiritual in a lot of ways. I've never seen a ghost, but I do believe they're around us. And I think we as humans, we might be too arrogant to say, “Oh, I don't believe in it.” The character I'm playing has strong scientific reasons as to why it doesn't exist. But as Clifford, I do feel, from a spiritual background that we aren't alone. We've gone back to X Files!

Ricky: Well, “maybe” is the better answer here, isn’t it? I'm from a very scientific background - we study the living. But it's exciting and lovely to ask those questions forever, isn't it? Some points in your life, you're more susceptible to things, you're more open to things and comfortable at the moment. The possibilities are all, aren’t they?

Sophia: Much like Ricky, I make sense of the world through science and data. I believe in fact. I believe in research. I learned that as a young person, being incredibly sensitive, as most of us artists are, having so much empathy, that at times, it made it very hard for me to be comfortable in the world. Understanding social science and the world of data helps me figure out where to put feelings.

And as an activist, as a researcher, as someone who speaks on causes, it's incredibly important for me to have deeply factual and well-researched arguments. And . . . Science also tells you that energy, once created, can never be destroyed. So what does that mean? What's in the empty space around us in this room? Energy, atoms . . . the air isn't empty - It's something. And so there's so much that I understand because of science. There's so much more in the world than we can process with our eyes and ears. Humans don't know everything. And so I'm very allergic to ideas of faith that are used to denigrate or harm people. I'm very curious about where the boundaries of science are, and where they will be in the future as we learn more. I think it's why I'm so inspired by the play because everybody's right, and everybody's a little bit wrong - the whole point of it is to ask questions. 

Ricky: I love that! That science is just this bomb of knowledge and there's a shockwave of it that slowly goes out as understanding. And maybe, what's impossible now, and magic now, will be explained later. 

And finally, how would you describe 2:22 - A Ghost Story in one word?

Clifford: Engaging.

Jaime: Gripping.

Sophia: Thrilling.

Ricky: Brilliant! 

2:22 A Ghost Story is at the Apollo Theatre until 17 September 2023

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